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UNLOCKING THE HIDDEN GENOME

Summary: The goal of this project is to further a unique cell-based technology to unveil gene functions for the poorly characterized druggable genome. Our end goal is to generate game-changing reagents and protocols, illuminating the "Dark Matter" of the genome.

The goal of this project is to further a unique genetic interaction technology to facilitate the unveiling of the functions of the poorly characterized members of the human kinome. Our end goal is to generate game-changing reagents and protocols, and illuminate the "Dark Matter" of the genome. Our strategy is based on ultra-high throughput gene interaction, a technology that we have developed for mammalian cells. Genetic interaction is a gold standard for shedding functional insight into gene function and is complimentary to protein:protein interaction and other standard protocols.

Our technologies represent a novel advance on cutting-edge approaches that use CRISPR and RNA interference. We stand ready to engage the project as we have already established a sound technical foundation having recently published the methodology. We describe pooled approaches as a readily scalable technology. Our efforts to screen immense numbers of interactions surrounding the human kinome. This will give us insight into functions and pathways for the poorly characterized genes.

One major goal is to create customized 'doubles libraries' where each of the 518 human kinase genes are co-ablated against every gene in the genome. This library constitutes millions of gene interaction pairs and is screened at high coverage in bioreactors. Our plan is to probe signaling pathways that lead to fundamental phenotypes that relate to loss of proliferation and cell death. However we have performed additional screens for specific signaling pathways, using integrated fluorescent:antibiotic reporter genes. These resources are scalable and applicable to nearly any human gene and nearly every cell type. Our screens scale to explore higher-order interactions, and extend beyond the kinome (i.e., GPCRs, nuclear receptors, and ion channels).